Interestingly enough, the word “self-control” was not used in
the Bible until the New Testament. It is used only nine times throughout the
Bible, and it simply means the ability to control your own behavior. I’m going
to write this article a bit different than I do with most of mine, and I’m
going to base it off of three separate statements. But before I do that though,
I want to quickly define what self-control is. In its most basic form, self-control
is the ability to set limitations on your life and do things in moderation;
that’s where we get the term “self” combined with “control”*.
Self-control is an essential component in
the healthy walk of a Christian. I know that if I read something like this,
I would be tempted to just say, “Yep, it is,” and leave it at that, but as
Christians, we are called to a greater response. If you were raised in church,
you probably learned the fruit of the spirit at a young age, maybe you even
know it in song version*, but not all of us take that list seriously. I very
strongly believe that it is one of the most important list of character
qualities in the Bible. Self-control is one of the fruits of the spirit, and is
mentioned in Galatians 5:23. If this character quality made the top nine, I
think that we can assume that it is very essential component to a healthy walk.
Boundaries and moderation are very important in life, but once we get our own
house (and even before that), we are the ones setting our boundaries.
Self-control can be achieved by all
Christians. God generally sets realistic goals. Just turn real quick
(this is still sort of on-topic) to Luke 18:27 where Jesus says, “The things
which are impossible with men are possible with God.” I’m definitely not saying
that we can achieve self-control in our own strength. A popular phrase is “God
will never give you more than you can handle” but that should be, “God will
never give you more than He can
handle”. Self-control can only be achieved through the power of the Holy
Spirit. Christians can only have the
ability of self-control when they surrender everything to God and let Him work
in their lives.
Self-control has been commanded by
God. A Sunday school teacher that I had several years ago would
say something but follow it up with the statement, “But don’t take my word for
it; open your Bibles...” So, open your Bible to 1 Corinthians 9:25. This verse
seems a bit confusing at first, so I just want to break it down into two
sections. The race that we are running in is our life. Run so that we may
obtain the prize, which means to give God all that we’ve got. Exercising
self-control is key to running the race.
Picture this: four runners are getting
ready to run a race. The guy in charge* gives no rules and no boundaries,
not even a track, but he does give a goal and no instruction on how to get
there. I’m guessing that not many of them would actually make it to the end,
because there were no boundaries. This is what I believe Paul is saying:
Self-control is essential to our “race” because it gives us a direction or
purpose in life and boundaries that keep us going in the right direction.
* In case you didn’t catch that, it’s control over
one’s self…
* AKA, fruit of the spirit 2.0
* Yeah, that shows how much I watch racing… Referee?
Umpire? Coach? Bat boy? Guy with the starting gun?
No comments:
Post a Comment